


Angelic Possession

by TalkMagically



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Meta Essay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 14:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16894638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalkMagically/pseuds/TalkMagically
Summary: I posted this theory on a separate post on Tumblr, and it deserves its own post here on AO3. I considered the requirements for angelic possession in the show for a while and felt that it was in a developed enough state to share. This was originally posted four years ago and has not been updated, so current knowledge about angelic possession that has been revealed since then has not been taken into consideration.





	Angelic Possession

As we know, demon possessions in the show are basically a free for all. As long as a human doesn’t have an anti-possession charm or tattoo, anyone can be possessed by any demon. They can even have a demon enter them when they’re already being possessed by something else.

Angels, on the other hand, have rules. The two things that we for sure, from the show, are that consent is needed and that there are bloodlines of vessels for angels (example: Michael with the Winchesters, Lucifer with the Campbells, and Castiel with the Novaks).

However, we have seen situations where an angel didn’t possess a vessel in their bloodline (Lucifer with Nick. Gadriel with Sam), so the bloodline isn’t an exact requirement for angelic possession. It’s merely preferred, for reasons I’ll go into shortly.

Now, the reactions of ill-fitted vessels are variable. Lucifer started to burn through Nick pretty quickly, despite his efforts to make Nick last as long as possible (Lucifer was, after all, rather patient when it came to waiting for Sam to say yes). Gadriel did not seem to have this issue with Sam and, for the most part, neither have any of the other angels that we’ve been seeing. While it’s natural to assume that many of the angels have managed to get a vessel from their bloodline since they were all cast out of Heaven, we also have evidence that many angels are taking vessels that are  _outside_  their bloodline out of desperation to find a vessel. They’re overlooking the bloodlines in favor of getting someone who gives consent.

There’s a downside, though. As we saw in Bartholomew’s office in “I’m No Angel”, just because a person gives their consent doesn’t mean they are able to hold the angel that did the asking. Bartholomew’s reaction to that event shows that the angels  _know_  this, but they just don’t care because they’re desperate for vessels. They’re bringing in every single person who says yes. Here is where my theory comes in.

 **ANYONE CAN BE A VESSEL TO AN ANGEL ONCE THEY’VE SAID YES, AS LONG AS THE CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE**.

The best way I can explain this is to compare humans to light bulbs and angels to power/wattage (considering that an angel’s grace is pretty much pure power, this comparison is not that far off). You can literally put any amount of power into a light bulb and it’ll take the electricity, even if the bulb burns out the moment the power is turned on because it was overloaded after a second of exposure.

Now, just like you can screw a 60 watt bulb where a 40 watt would go because the fixture accepts them both, angels can go into any person as long as consent is given and their actions this season make that abundantly clear (Castiel’s only issue in “Road Trip” was that Sam hadn’t given him consent, not that he wouldn’t “fit”). However, sometimes an angel is too strong for the vessel they’re trying to enter and they literally blow them up (just like that poor girl in Bartholomew’s office).

 ** _AS LONG AS THE ANGEL IS AT EQUAL STRENGTH TO OR WEAKER THAN THE AMOUNT OF “POWER” A VESSEL CAN HANDLE, CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR ANGELIC POSSESSION_**. This explains Nick, Sam, and every other non-bloodline vessel we have seen in the show. They all have been possessed by angels even though they aren’t in those angels’ bloodlines, but since they were strong enough to take the angels the possessions were stable. Nick was barely strong enough to hold Lucifer, thus him burning out so quickly. Since Sam was literally  _made_  to hold an angel of Lucifer’s strength, Gadriel was able to possess him without any threat of a burnout because Gadriel simply isn’t strong enough to do such a thing to Sam. We’ve yet to see anything on the other non-bloodline vessels, but it’s not too much to assume that they’re in a similar situation as Gadriel/Sam were in.

Considering that Raphael burned out the mind of his male vessel even though the body remained intact, this supports the light bulb/vessel comparison since light bulbs don’t last forever. They can handle the power, but they’ll eventually give in and burn out. Raphael did a  _lot_  to his male vessel in a short amount of time and that wear and tear is to be expected. Lucifer didn’t burn out Sam and Michael didn’t burn out John Winchester, though, so it could also be considered that the angels  _can_  inhabit a vessel without causing a burn out. The logical explanation for that would be that they use their grace to heal their vessel as they cause the damage.

It’s a lot to consider when discussing angelic possession, but the angels are complex. As I said above, they aren’t in a free-for-all like the demons and have rules to follow. My theory expands on that, addresses a few things that are outside the guidelines, and acknowledges a few things that the angels cannot control.

( _Without Adam returning from Hell, there is no way to tell where he falls on the spectrum. Michael may or may not have taken the time to heal him. As for Gabriel, his vessel is literally centuries old. The condition of the vessel after that long of use cannot be identified with what we currently know about angelic possession in the show._ )


End file.
